


Mutation

by skepticseptic



Category: Buzzfeed Unsolved (Web Series)
Genre: (is that a thing? it is now i guess), Angst, M/M, Post-Apocalypse, Suggested Major Character Death, its not described explicitly but it's a widespread nuclear fallout, its not focused on particularly but its there, lowkey relationship
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-05-03
Updated: 2018-05-03
Packaged: 2019-05-01 19:48:39
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,958
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14527908
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/skepticseptic/pseuds/skepticseptic
Summary: “We were so careful, Shane…” Ryan said quietly, slowly dragging his eyes from the bite up to Shane’s face. Ryan was looking at him, but it felt more like he was looking through him, a dazed expression still lingering on his face.





	Mutation

**Author's Note:**

> This is for Summer's prompt for my 300 celebration, "How long did you think we could do this?"
> 
> Also a huge thank you to [Brandy (oh-devil(conceit))](https://thepossessionofshanemadej.tumblr.com/) for betaing this, and the lovely peeps from the writing server for giving me mutation ideas, it wouldn't have turned out half as good otherwise <3

                “Oh shit, oh shit, oh _shit, Shane!_ ”

Shane snapped his head around at the sound of Ryan screaming for him deeper in the woods, the sudden loud noise sending a flock of birds soaring into the air. He rushed towards Ryan’s voice, panic making his heart beat hard.

                _Ryan never screams._

                Branches and twigs whipped across his face as he ran through the trees, leaving stinging lacerations, but he couldn’t care less. The noise of the pounding of his feet against the forest floor was rivaled only by that of his own heart pounding in his ears and the ragged panting of his breath. He narrowly avoided tripping on a root sticking out of the ground and stumbled into a small clearing with a stream burbling quietly through it. On the other side of the stream, Ryan was on his knees, his back to Shane.

                “Ry?” Shane asked cautiously as he stepped farther into the clearing. Ryan offered no response as Shane moved closer, but Ryan’s shoulders shook, and he gasped for air.

                Shane stepped over the stream, the heel of his boot sinking into the muddy bank, coming free with a sucking squelch on his next step. He walked around to the front of Ryan, forcing himself to hold back his gasp at the sight. Tears poured down Ryan’s face; his breathing was shallow, and he stared numbly down at his left forearm. It was decorated with a nasty looking set of teeth marks and blood welled up from the deep gashes, slowly dripping down Ryan’s arm, horribly dark where it pooled on the ground. Steeling himself, Shane kneeled in front of him, carefully taking his injured arm to inspect it. Ryan flinched slightly at his touch, but otherwise remained completely blank.

                There was no way Shane would be able to tell if Ryan was okay until he dealt with the blood loss. Sighing internally, he took his knife out and cut a square from the bottom of his t-shirt. He dipped it into the nearby stream, wringing it out a bit before bringing it to Ryan’s arm. Ryan hissed under his breath at the first contact and seemed to snap out of his trance, if only a little. He squirmed when Shane ran the cloth over a particularly bad spot near the center of the injury, nearly flinching out of Shane’s grasp. The water slowly washed away the blood, little by little, until Shane was able to see the bite in its entirety. There was no doubt that it was from an infected animal, especially given the number of puncture wounds and the ferocity of the attack.

                “We were so careful, Shane…” Ryan said quietly, slowly dragging his eyes from the bite up to Shane’s face. Ryan was looking at him, but it felt more like he was looking _through_ him, a dazed expression still lingering on his face.

                Shane wanted nothing more than to be able to assure him that everything would be okay, but they both knew that it would be a lie. There was no coming back from the infection; many had tried. They had seen it time and time again, in settlement after settlement, as people slowly died one by one.

                “How long did you think we could do this? It was only a matter of time. Why did we think we could avoid it? I- I’m scared, Shane, I don’t want to die, not like this,” Ryan pleaded, although Shane wasn’t sure to who or what he was pleading to. “God, anything but this.”

                He pulled Ryan’s body to his chest, wrapping him up in a tight hug as warm, wet tears soaked Shane’s shirt. He couldn’t begin to fathom how he was going to function without Ryan once the mutations took their toll. He couldn’t hold back any longer and his tears fell freely down his face, cutting clean tracks into the dust and dirt that stuck to his skin, the salt making the cuts on his face sting as they fell. They depended on each other, a system that had worked for many years suddenly torn apart by a set of teeth.

 

                The first symptom showed two days later.

               

                They came across an old abandoned city, one that nature was actively trying to take back. Tree roots fractured the sidewalks and roads; tall grass and bushes filled in the slowly expanding cracks. Vines strangled tall buildings, covering them in large swaths of greens and yellows. The gaping rectangles of long since shattered windows stood as one of the few indications that this had once been a thriving metropolis. It was eerie to walk through it, over the crumbling sidewalks and shard of shattered glass, the distant memory of _before_ resurfacing.

                The suspension of reality was quickly destroyed. A small group of deer grazed on some of the grass growing up from the concrete. They looked normal enough at first, but the closer they got, the more unlike _deer_ they became.

                Shane’s foot caught on a rock, sending it skittering across the ground and drawing their attention. One of the deer was decorated with spots of white, but at the startling sound, the spots blinked in unison. Eyes—thousands of them, all over its body. Another had spindles of fractured bones where antlers should be, standing stark and sharp against the green of the overtaken city. The third had two heads; one stayed chewing on the grass as the other looked up towards them.

                After a short staring contest, the creatures bolted away, leaping down the street and disappearing into the darkness of the trees.

                Ryan and Shane didn’t stay long after that. Ryan rubbed his hand over the bit of cloth covering where he had been bitten as they made their way towards the river for the night.

                They set up a small fire a couple of feet away from the river, made of tinder gathered hastily from the forest nearby. Ryan sat with his back toward the blaze, watching the flickering light gleam off the rushing water of the river while absentmindedly picking at the edge of the makeshift bandage. Shane put more wood on the fire and sat down next to him, leaving a hand face up on the ground between them.

                A moment later, Ryan took the invitation; lacing their fingers together. Slowly, he brought their joined hands to his face and Shane watched him as the soft light danced across his face while he pressed soft kisses to Shane’s knuckles. A loving smile crossed his face for a moment, but slowly faded at the sight of the bandage still tied around Ryan’s forearm.

                “Do you want me to take another look at that, maybe clean it up again?” Shane asked quietly, his free hand tracing the edge of the cloth. Ryan went stiff at the question, but eventually nodded ‘yes’.

                Disentangling their fingers, Shane gently took a hold of Ryan’s arm, pulling it into his lap so he could see what he was doing. Deft fingers untied the knot that had kept the bandage in place and carefully peeled it away from the congealed blood of the injury. Ryan looked away as Shane worked, not particularly wanting to see the cause of his own imminent death—or at least, that was the plan until Shane’s sharp intake of breath. He dared a glance down and was greeted by the sight of pinprick sized spots surrounding the bite, glowing dully in pale greenish-blue and white. He could almost pretend they were freckles, but even as they looked on in awe and horror, more spots winked into existence. Ryan looked to Shane, eyes drenched in fear and firelight.

                It was the first of many sleepless nights for Shane; Ryan’s face buried into his chest and quietly snoring away as he could only stay awake and watch as more pinpricks covered the arm slung over his chest. Every night, he noted how far they had spread. It started off slow, the spot furthest away from the bite maybe only a couple centimeters at most. Over time, the came faster and faster, eventually covering all of Ryan’s skin. The only spot left bare of the glow was the site of the bite – like a black-hole in the epicenter of the galaxy now written into Ryan’s skin.

                A week after the appearance of the mutation, it evolved. The pinprick spots grew steadily brighter, their glow no longer limited to the night. Along with the new brightness, a pale blueish-purple spread underneath the pinpricks, faint at first and only small erratic lines. Shane had been tracing his finger along one of those lines one night when he came to the realization that they weren’t _just_ random lines.

 

                _Ryan’s veins were glowing_.

               

                The small capillaries closest to the surface of his skin glowed brightest, nearly white in color, and the deeper the vein was the fainter it glowed. Shane stopped tracing the lines, instead wrapping his lose arm around Ryan and pulling him closer as he slept, tears falling from behind his closed eyes. Watching Ryan die slowly at the hand of these mutations and being powerless to stop it was killing him inside. His thoughts spiraled as he slowly began to drift off into the unconsciousness of sleep, his last waking thought a request sent to the universe to just spare this one person.

 

                Shane was up first the next morning, and he carefully pushed Ryan off of his chest so he could get up and work the kinks out of his neck and back. Sleeping on the ground for years and done him no favors, that was for sure. It was still dark, the sun not even peeking over the horizon yet, so he limped over to their fire, poking it with a long branch for a moment as cherry embers glowed in the ash. Shane gathered what was left of their pile of wood nearby, carefully placing the bits into the rough circle of stones lining the edge of the fire. With a little bit of coaxing, it roared back to life, the crackling of the wood burning filling the otherwise quiet air.

                He made his way back to where Ryan was still asleep and sat down, his legs stretched out in front of him. One of his hands drifted over to gently comb through Ryan’s hair, pausing only when he snuffled and turned over to curl around Shane’s legs and press his nose against his thigh.

                The stayed like that as the sun climbed over the horizon, turning everything a dusky pink as it rose. Birds sang from the depths of the forest, sounding nothing like they used to, but still somewhat comforting. A weak breeze pushed through the trees, ruffling the leaves and grass a bit before quieting down again. Sunlight streamed through the branches and leaves, leaving dappled patterns decorating the forest floor. Ryan stirred next to him, tightening his hold on Shane’s legs for a moment before relaxing again. A clumsy hand unwound itself and he stretched for a moment before bringing it up to his face, rubbing at his eyes as he sat up.

                “Shane? Shane…” Ryan called out, searching for him with his hands and his head held low. Confused, Shane held one of his arms out for him, Ryan’s arm eventually knocking against it and his hand grabbing onto it with a desperation.     

                Ryan’s voice cracked like it did when he was about to start crying, and Shane gasped when Ryan looked up at him. Instead of those lovely brown eyes he’d come to love over the past few years, there was nothing but milky whiteness. The next words Ryan spoke sent a chill down to Shane’s bones: “ _I can’t see, Shane.”_

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you for reading my fic!
> 
> If you wanna send me prompts, tag me in stuff, or just yell w/ me about AUs, you can find me on tumblr [here](http://www.skeptic-septic.tumblr.com/)
> 
> Kudos and comments are much appreciated :)
> 
> Cheers!  
> -Lee


End file.
